April 13, 1998 | Volume 87, number 24 | Previous | Next | Index
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Princeton women Climb Against Odds
By Carol Carlson

Some people climb a mountain just because it's there. But five Princeton women have nobler reasons for scaling Alaska's awesome Mount McKinley next June: they're out to raise awareness about breast cancer, as well as $2 million for research into ways of eliminating the disease.
    Majka Burhardt '99, an anthropology major, Bethany Coates '98 (history), Naomi Darling '97, Katie Gamble '98 (ecology and evolutionary biology) and Meg Smith '98 (geosciences) are facing a three-week, 20,320 foot climb up the highest mountain in North America...

Scattering and diffraction pattern generated from a nylon fiber by a helium neon laser beam. Laser beam comes in from left; scattering pattern is projected on a screen at right.

Physicists use lasers to interrogate fibers
By JoAnn Gutin

When Principal Research Physicist Dennis Mansfield snaps off the light in his lab at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, the room plunges into a darkness so thick it would give a spelunker pause. The only thing visible is a pinprick of red laser light trained on a hair- thin strand of fiber.
    The reason for the blackness?
    "We're interrogating that fiber," says Mansfield cheerfully.
    In this sense, interrogation means discovering the physical properties of a material. And until last year Mansfield was using lasers to interrogate the plasma, or superheated gas, that circulated through the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR). Now his lasers are pointed in a different direction. ...

New book is one of several generated
by 250th Conference on Higher Education

Essays assess academic leadership
By Sally Freedman

Universities and Their Leadership is a recently published book of 10 essays that provide "thoughtful contributions to our better understanding of the evolution of higher education," say the editors, President Harold T. Shapiro and Emeritus President William G. Bowen (now president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation).
    These essays were originally presented at the Princeton Conference on Higher Education, a symposium held in March 1996 as part of Princeton's 250th Anniversary. The conference, which was jointly sponsored by the University and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, has inspired eight or nine books, Shapiro noted, all published by Princeton University Press. ...

Defender John Harrington '99 wields long stick against University of Virginia opponent.

Five NCAA championships have made lacrosse Princeton's "signature sport in the '90s"

Fastest game on two legs
By Ben Kessler

Notwithstanding the major accomplishments of several other athletic teams, lacrosse has become Princeton's signature sport in the 1990s. The women's team, led by Coach Chris Sailer, visited the NCAA Final Four for five consecutive years, culminating in a national championship in 1994. And the men, under Coach Bill Tierney, have been virtual rulers of their roost, winning four of the last six national championships and remaining unbeaten for 29 games until the streak was snapped at Virginia last month.
    Lacrosse has been billed as the fastest game on two feet. It requires of its players no particular size, but favors the quick and the rugged. The men's and women's games are essentially similar in the sense that a ball is carried and passed from stick to stick toward a goal six feet high and six feet wide. ...

Times editor Cohen analyzes political coverage ... Princeton Atelier ... Swiss vocal ensemble tours U.S. ... Generals concert ... Ball Lecture focuses on security threats ... Belknap visitor ... Editor Joffe discusses the Euro .... Hanson lectures on environmental protection ... Lecture, demonstration ... Committee seeks nominations ...

Editor: Sally Freedman
Associate editor: Caroline Moseley
Calendar and production editor:
    Carolyn Geller
Senior writer: JoAnn Gutin
Photographers:
    Denise Applewhite,
    Robert P. Matthews
Web edition: Mahlon Lovett